Tag: live music

Situated roughly 50 miles above NYC in Westchester County, Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts is a gorgeous rolling estate and acclaimed performing arts venue that hosts some of the best symphonic and operatic performances in New York. The historic venue recently came to Listen to update their pre-concert “call to seats” sounds.

Our “Call of Caramoor” bells will announce all the concerts in the renowned Venetian Theater, and add to guests’ sense of anticipation ahead of every performance.

As Listen Founder Partner Steve Milton puts it, these bells are “grounded by a serene melody that blossoms slowly, as if emerging from the natural sounds of the woods. The call will ring out at regular intervals as the performance grows closer, first at 30 minutes before, then 15, 10, and finally 5. With each repetition, the core melody will take shape and increase in prominence, evolving from a gentle ambience to a clear, resounding alert that politely urges our guests to take their seats.”

We were inspired by birdsong’s conversational qualities (connoting community), and the natural beauty of the estate itself in composing these sounds — as well as the historical connotations of bells themselves, often associated with ritualistic gatherings.

Our hope is that the Call of Caramoor sets the mood and whets audience appetites for the extraordinary music yet to come. If you’re planning an excursion to Caramoor this summer for their Summer Music Festival, keep an ear out for our chimes.

For the latest Music x Technology project, we worked with Microsoft and Washed Out on their collaboration around Washed Out’s new album, Mister Mellow. The album is his first fully immersive multimedia experience. Every track is accompanied by an original music video, created by 11 different video artists and utilizing several forms of animation, from Claymation and stop-motion, to hand-drawn cartoons.

To take his bold vision even further, we collaborated to produce a dynamic live show, allowing fans to experience in person his “impressionistic view of the world.” The creative team behind the collab turned to Microsoft technology to translate the rich, detailed patchwork of Mister Mellow’s music and visuals into an equally powerful live experience. Advanced live integrations mimic the wide range of artistic styles seen and heard on the album.

Each component of the live show has been designed as an extension of a song and its music video, creating a vivid, sometimes absurd world for fans to explore during his tour. Thanks to the robust output and compact size of the Kinect-powered system, Washed Out will be able to share the experience with fans around the world.